While Germany's Wittenberg is the place where Luther launched a revolution, it's also where Christopher Marlowe parked "Doctor Faustus" - and where Shakespeare sent Hamlet to college.

As the Bard might say, thereby hangs a tale.

In "Wittenberg," David Davalos gives us one, bringing these three figures together in a play crossing Tom Stoppard with Monty Python. Under Carol Zippel's direction, Windfall Theatre is giving "Wittenberg" its Milwaukee premiere, in a production that opened over the weekend.

"Wittenberg" is set in October 1517, as Hamlet (Kyle Queenan) begins his senior year, still unsure whether he should major in theology under Rev. Luther (Robert W.C. Kennedy) or philosophy under Dr. Faustus (David Flores).

While Hamlet tries to sort things out, his two guiding spirits grapple with each other, in wickedly smart and archly funny scenes, as Luther pleads with Faustus to save his soul - and Faustus implores Luther to free his mind.

Tall, angular and nearly bald, Kennedy looks the part of a pious monk; his characteristically forceful stage presence underscores Luther's self-righteously angry side. But Kennedy also gives us glimpses of a man wracked with doubt and fear, as his entire worldview begins to totter.

Sumptuously costumed - and constantly ingesting, drinking, smoking or groping - the short and stout Flores couldn't be more different.

Flores gives us a Faustus who combines Lord Byron, George Carlin and Timothy Leary, while also moonlighting as a musician in a Wittenberg pub - allowing Flores to showcase his pipes, in drinking songs featuring fizzy arrangements by accompanist Paula Foley Tillen.

The overmatched Hamlet can't compete.

Flores makes the charismatic Faustus seem as large as Falstaff, filling the room and bigger than life. But removed from the drama in Elsinore, Davalos' Hamlet seems smaller - a typically callow teen confusing his own narrow self-absorption with existential angst.

It's a bit much for Queenan, who speaks far too quickly - partly, I suspect, because he knows that for all his character's lines, this Hamlet has little to say.

Ditto the various characters and plot lines involving Lindsey L. Gagliano, given the thankless task of playing "The Eternal Feminine," a mash-up of the Virgin Mary and characters from Goethe, Marlowe and Shakespeare.

To paraphrase the accusation that Davalos' Luther hurls at Faustus, sometimes "Wittenberg" takes a good idea and goes too far.

But these slings and arrows of outraged credibility are still worth the trip. Davalos' best outweighs the rest, and if the question is to see or not to see "Wittenberg," the answer is easy.

IF YOU GO

"Wittenberg" continues through March 3 at Village Church Arts, 130 E. Juneau Ave. For tickets, call (414) 332-3963.

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Keep up with the art scene and trends in urban design with art and architecture critic Mary Louise Schumacher. Every week, you'll get the latest reviews, musings on architecture and her picks for what to do on the weekends.